


A Lesson in Mimicry

by quickpaint



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Blood, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Minor Injuries, Minor Violence, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-05-14 19:12:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19279402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quickpaint/pseuds/quickpaint
Summary: While on a hiking trip with his troop of Junior Woodchucks, Huey finds himself and his troop journeying into a cave in search of a missing scout.





	A Lesson in Mimicry

**Author's Note:**

> A couple notes before the beginning of this, this is technically set in my superhero au (that I mostly just do art for.)  
> But, you don't actually need to know anything about that other than the fact that Huey is an adult, is missing his right arm from the just above the elbow down and has a robotic prosthetic.

“Okay, kids! Do you have everything?” Huey asks with an almost childish degree of enthusiasm, as he scans his small troop of scouts, taking a quick head count. He smiles as the kids give a chorus of ‘yeah!’s and ‘yes, sir!’s.

His own pack of supplies was set down near the sign that marked the proper hiking trail, ready to be picked up when they were all set. He was only somewhat self-conscious of the fact that he wasn’t wearing his proper troop leader uniform, instead he was in his casual clothes, having had to rush over late due to hero work. He’d only had time to grab his supplies.

One, two, three… Fifteen. Huey frowns. _Fifteen?_ He was missing one. He scans the kids again… fifteen.

“I-is everything okay?” Asks a girl from the back of the group, Huey doesn’t see who it was. It sounded like Marley.

“We’re missing one,” He mutters, taking a good look at each scout, trying to figure out who it was. He didn’t really want to take a roll call. He eventually comes to a conclusion, “Page is missing, have you guys see him at all?”

The kids deliberate amongst themselves, eventually one of the boys, Everley, pipes up, “Oh! I saw him a little bit ago, said he was chasing after a bird.”

_A bird?_

“Which way did he go?” Huey asks, crouching down to his level.

Everley thinks it over, then points to a break in the trees, “That way! I’m sure of it, before you ask! And I know you would’ve!” He huffs with feigned indignance.

Huey laughs and pats him on the head, straightening up, “Thanks.”

 

Huey trots for the break in the trees, heading straight, until he hits a clearing. Far ahead of him, after a brief second of scanning the area, he spots Page.

“Hey, wait!” Page calls, chasing after a bird as it flies into a cave entrance, “Come back!”

A panicked gasp escapes Huey and he gives chase, calling after the little scout, “Wait, don’t go in there!” He forgets to call back to the group to stay put, doesn’t even think about it as he runs into the cave. Only until he hears a small stampede of footsteps behind him, does he skitter to a stop. The group crashes into him, just barely making him take a step forward.

“Why’d ya stop?” Gordon asks, sounding more curious than upset.

Huey runs a hand through his hair with a twinge of frustration, feeling a feather catch in the gaps between the metal of his fingers, “You kids should go back to the trail while I get Page, it isn’t--” Huey finds his sentence cut off as there’s an earth shaking rumble, followed by a crash and the only light source disappearing.

There’s a collective panicked shout from the little troop, followed by scared chattering.

“Calm down, calm down!” Huey raises his voice above their own, “Do any of you have your flashlights?” His question is answered rather quickly as 6 beams of light hit his face at once. He blocks the blinding light with his arm, “ ** _Okay_** …” He grinds out, inching just a tiny bit closer to blowing a fuse, trying to blink the spots away, “Please don’t point those at my face in the future.”

The kids lower their flashlights with a chorus of apologies, a couple outright shutting theirs off.

“Is everyone here?” Huey waits as the kids shuffle about, some counting under their breath. Once they confirm that they’re all there, he continues, “Good, shine your flashlights to where the cave entrance was for me.”

The kids swivel, shining their lights back the way they came and as Huey had feared, the entrance was gone, sealed off completely. Huey rubs his beak with his hand, muttering a mild swear under his breath. They didn’t really have any choice but to go deeper into the cave. They still had to find Page, too.

“Well,” Huey starts, clapping his hands together, causing the kids to all turn to him, “We have no choice but to go further into the cave, we need to find Page and another exit.”

“Isn’t this dangerous?”

“Of course, but we don’t have any other option,” Huey says as he turns to lead the way, “I’m here to keep you all safe, remember?” He adds, hoping to quell fears and while most of the kids seem satisfied with that, a few mutter doubtfully between themselves.

As they trek forward, Huey continues to look back to make a head count of all the kids, noting with pride that the kids were making sure to keep track of each other. The cave itself doesn’t have much variation, the kids continuing to shine their lights on the walls in hopes of finding a metaphorical fork in the road. When they finally make a turn, Huey gets a shock to the system as a shout rings out from up ahead. He rushes forward, the kids picking up the pace as well.

After taking another turn, Huey spots what he’s looking for and he hurries over to where Page was sitting, his foot trapped in a gap between a boulder and the floor, “Are you okay?!” He asks as he examines the gap, noting with relief that the boy’s foot didn’t seem to be crushed.

“Yeah... yeah, I think…” Page says, sounding scared.

“What happened--” Huey starts to ask before interrupting himself, “Let me get you out of there, before anything.” He moves over to the rock and hooks his fingers underneath it, lifting it up enough for Page to slip his foot out.

Huey drops the rock with a rumbling thud, then drops to his knees in front of Page, who was inspecting his foot. The boy looks up at him, satisfied with the state of his foot, and his eyes tear up.

Page suddenly sweeps forward, hugging Huey around the neck, “I’m sorry I ran off!”

Huey laughs softly and hugs him lightly back, “All that matters is that you’re okay,” Huey places his hands on his shoulders, making him back up, “Right?”

Page nods, still teary, “Right.”

“Okay, tell me what happened.”

Page hesitates for just a moment, then says, “I saw that bird I’m still looking for, so… so I followed it and it flew in here.” Huey narrows his eyes, but gives a small nod for him to continue, “Then, I slipped and my foot got caught between that rock and the floor.”

“You’re… certain it was the right bird?”

“Yeah! Same colors… It was the right size, too!”

Huey nods slowly, “Okay,” _A lure_...? Huey thinks as he turns to check on the kids, happy to note that they were all still there. He smiles at them, “All right, now that we’ve found Page, we need to find another way out. Did any of you see another passage on the way over here?”

Gordon pipes up before any of the other kids can form a word, “Nope!” The simplistic response followed by murmured agreements.

“Let’s go,” Huey turns, quickly adding over his shoulder, “Stick close together and make sure no one falls behind!” When Page attempts to push past him to join the group, Huey stops him, holding out a hand, “I need you to stay in front of me, I want to make sure you’re not hurt.”

Page looks up at him with utter shock, “But… But, I’m fine!”

“You don’t know that for sure, stay in front,” Huey says, maybe a bit too sternly, he hoped he wasn't wrong. Page frowns deeply but takes the lead as he’s told.

As the troop continues their journey, they begin to chat amongst themselves. Huey smiles as the tension that had been plaguing the kids eases just a bit. The light-hearted conversation distracting the more easily frightened children from the claustrophobic darkness.

"Do I still have to walk in front?" Page asks, although he was more walking _beside_ Huey than anything.

"Yup."

"But…" Page wrings his hands together, "Shouldn't you know by now that I'm fine?"

Huey tunes out the soft talking behind him. _What was that?_ He shoots Page a confused look. He turns the words over in his mind several times, it… hadn't at all sounded like something Page would say. He narrows his eyes.

"It's… better to be safe than sorry," Huey says after another pause. Page doesn't say anything else. What was going on? He had an idea, and he was pretty certain about it. Even still, he was soon thinking extensively about all the possibilities that this cave had in store.

"Huey!"

"... Yeah?" Huey turns to face the kids, expecting one of them to be shining a light on a passage he missed while deep in his own thoughts, instead, all eyes were on him. He chuckles nervously, "What is it?"

"Are you okay?" Jaime asks, her eyebrows raised, mimicking the nervous look most of the other kids had.

Huey frowns, his hands clenched into fists at his sides, "I'm fine. Why?"

"Y-you just seem really, um… tense." Marley stammers.

Laughing softly, he ruffles her hair, "I was just thinking, that's all." Despite all the thought he put into it, there was really only one possibility. He didn't know if he liked that or not.

"Are… are we going to be stuck in here?" A voice towards the back of the group asks.

"Is that why you're so tense?" Jaime adds, as the rest of the kids break out into confused, almost panicked, chatter, much different from earlier. Huey takes a deep breath.

The air gets more and more heavy as Huey tries to continue taking deep breaths as the kids ask him if they’re getting out of here, if they were going to be okay, small voices all talking over one another. The darkness starting to feel like it was enclosing more on him with each inhale. Pushing it away, or trying to, with each exhale. He felt sick to his stomach.

"Kids," He starts, shaking off the queasiness, " _Kids_!" Louder this time, the chatter dies down as he gets their attention, "Calm down. It doesn't help to panic in these situations. We'll be fine, I promise."

The kids, all fifteen-- Huey glances to his side, all sixteen, quiet down. They all give a hesitant nod. Huey smiles.

Once everyone was calmed down, and after taking a short rest, they continue their trek deeper into the cave. This time, Huey makes sure to join in on the conversation. Answering the odd question or telling a quick story about some of his adventures when he was a kid their age. Page stays quiet as they keep moving.

 

The conversation dies down as they all eventually notice a light source up ahead. Behind Huey, there was a chorus of gasps and hopeful talk of an exit. Maybe he was wrong about the nature of this cave.

The group picks up the pace a bit, and although none of the kids push past Huey, they definitely seemed like they wanted to. Several small hands grabbing his hands and forearms. A few even taking a fistful of the back of his shirt.

Moments later they enter a large open space, well-lit by lanterns lining the walls. There were no other openings on any other side of the room. Huey scans the room as the kids, having let go of him, breathe a sigh of disappointment. Huey's gaze goes to the ceiling and everything is confirmed in that moment.

"Gotcha." Huey breathes, and 'Page' whips around to face him, eyes blazing.

"How did you know?!" 'Page' demands.

Huey grins wide, "That bird you mimicked doesn't exist in North America." It's face goes slack with shock, eyes wide.

Huey braces himself as it lunges at him, it’s form morphing faster than the eye can follow. It attempts to knock him down, instead sending him sliding back as it pushes. They struggle for a long moment, grappling, turning, and tumbling. The kids start to shout in confusion.

When Huey gets a good look at the form it decided to take, he scoffs and rolls his eyes, “Really?” He grabs it by the ‘shirt’ and swings it around, tossing it a couple feet back. Huey shifts his weight to one foot, crossing his arms.

It shakes itself out and looks at him for a second before turning to the troop to start the whole spiel. Huey turns to face the kids himself, seeing all fifteen looking between the two of them. He hears Page, in a basket up above, make a noise of utter bafflement.

 

“Kids, come here,” It starts, in Huey’s voice, “He’s dangerous!” It points at Huey, who barely gives it a second glance. The kids all look at each other and break out into a strangely organized discussion.

“What should we do?” Wil murmurs to Jaime, who gives a helpless shrug.

“W-well…” Marley starts, but she’s swiftly interrupted by Gordon, who, for some reason, raises a hand.

“We should ask ‘em questions!” Gordon offers enthusiastically, like he was having the time of his life.

“Ohhh, good idea.” Talia says, giving his shoulder a good-hearted shake. Several other kids voice their agreement.

“I don’t know about you guys but I’m already suspicious of the Huey on the right,” Sparrow says, narrowing his eyes at Huey, he pauses as the other kids ask him why, “I mean he gave that other Huey a good toss, didn’t he? That can’t be _our_ Troop Dad.”

Huey flushes at the casual use of that nickname, they almost never used that around him. But he always heard them using it in casual conversation amongst themselves.

“That’s kinda irrelevant, isn’t it?” Vika says, she crosses her arms, “We can’t figure it out based on that.”

“Yeah. Yeah, like Gordon said, that’s why we have to ask them questions.” Lark adds.

Everley steps forward, “What should we ask first?” He asks the group, he looks between all the other kids.

Before anyone can say anything, Wil goes ahead and asks the first question that comes to mind, “When’s your birthday?”

“It’s in April,” Huey answers automatically, before the shapeshifter can answer.

The kids murmur between themselves, some wondering if they should ask what _day_ his birthday is, others shooting that down in favor of asking the next question. Eventually they shout out the next question in unison.  
  
“How many siblings do you have?”

The shapeshifter answers this time, having listened to Huey and the troops’ earlier conversation, “Two brothers!”

“Okay! Okay!” Gordon says, “What’s your Uncle’s name?”

“Donald,” Huey and the shapeshifter say simultaneously.

“Ohhhh!” The kids chorus, impressed, and soon they were shouting out all manner of questions at the two. Several of which were questions that Huey nor the shapeshifter would have any real answer to. Huey doesn’t bother to answer most of them, even ones he knew the answer to. He taps his foot against the cold stone floor, rubbing his temple with one hand.

“Uhhhhh,” Darius rubs his chin, wracking his brain now that it was his turn to ask a question, “What’s your favorite… color?”

The kids all groan as Huey closes his eyes and pinches the space just above his bill in frustration. He looks at the shapeshifter expectantly along with the kids.

“Uhhh,” It looks at Huey, then down at itself, “Red?”

The kids break out in incredulous murmuring, maybe at the fact that the shapeshifter had answered the question with uncertainty, Huey didn’t really know. They seemed extremely indecisive.

“Kids,” He says finally, they needed a shove in the right direction _right now_ , “You only really need to ask me _one_ question,” He holds up a finger for emphasis.

The Woodchucks go quiet and begin conversing under their breaths. The stumped discussion ends quickly as Everley pipes up, sounding extremely triumphant, “Oh! Oh, I got it! Can you take your arm off?!” Huey grins. The question is met with excited shouts from the others.

The shapeshifter, baffled, says, “Of course not! What kind of--”

It stiffens, jaw slack, as Huey takes his right arm off, smiling happily. Huey puts his prosthesis back on as the kids all cheer and gather to his side of the room.

“Oh, now I feel really stupid,” He hears Sparrow mumble to himself, several other kids patting him on the back and shoulders. The rest of the kids chime in with their own apologies to Huey.

“Don’t worry about it,” Huey says, smiling at them, smile vanishing as the creature grows in size in his peripheral vision. “Kids, get behind me!”

The creature roars, having taken what Huey presumes is it’s true form. It was now a little under twice Huey’s size; it looked, to him at least, like a wolf made of a dark oily substance. Yellow eyes shining in the murk of its’ body. Teeth gleaming as it snarls.

“What are you gonna do?!” Wil asks.

Huey inhales, now on edge, the creature hunching over in an aggressive stance. Exhale. What _was_ he going to do about this? He knew the solution to the problem, he and his family dealt with one of these when he was still a kid. But, _how_ was he going to do this now?

“I guess I’ll have to kill you first,” The shapeshifter grumbles, mostly to itself. Then, it was on the attack.

Huey inhales sharply, “Kids, move!” He shouts as he brings his arms up to brace for impact. It grabs him by his organic arm and throws him, sending him sliding across the hard floor. Huey starts to rise, then ducks under a clawed hand as it swipes at his head, he stumbles to his feet, dips under its’ arm and past it. Spinning around once in the clear.

It whirls around and speeds towards him. Huey blocks it as it swings at him, taking steps back as it attacks. This wasn’t going to work, he wasn’t going to win this by being on the defense the whole time. He blocks another swipe before hooking it square in the jaw. Huey ducks under another attack and behind him he could hear the kids voicing their doubts to each other. He lets out a shaky breath. Distracted, Huey’s feet are swept out from under him, his ankle grabbed as he falls. His heart drops like a rock to his stomach. The troop gasps.

It lifts him with ease, swinging around, gaining momentum. Putting all its weight into it, it throws him. Huey brings an arm up to defend his head as he sails across the room; his back hits the wall, the force of the impact knocking the air out of his lungs. He coughs as he hits the ground, trying to roll over to his hands and knees. Despite the attempt to protect his head, he can feel blood rolling down his scalp, under his feathers and soaking his hair. There was a sharp pain in his shoulder and a hard to shake dizziness blurring his vision. His stomach was churning.

The shapeshifter laughs, loud and raspy, “Is that all?”

Huey pulls himself up to his hands and knees, left arm shaking just a little. He turns his head, watching as the creature slowly stalks toward his troop. His kids. The kids back away from it as it approaches, soon they had nowhere to go. Huey could feel his head clearing up.

 

"If you touch any of those kids, you'll regret it," Huey croaks from across the room, despite the obvious strain while still trying to catch his breath, his voice was dangerously low. It put a twisting knot in each of the kids' stomachs, they've never heard their troop leader speak like that, and although they shouldn't have been frightened of it, they were. But, they feared the shapeshifting creature stalking towards them more so.

"What'll you do? You can barely move," it growls back, a condescending smugness lacing it's raspy voice. It snarls at the fifteen frightened kids. Page was crying, too, despite not being in immediate danger.

"You'll regret it," Huey says more clearly, his voice having gained an edge sharper than any blade. He wipes blood from his face.

The creature merely chuckles as it reaches for one of the girls.

"Let's see you talk so tough when I swallow this one whole."

The girl, Eva, shrieks as it grabs her by the arm, every single one of the other kids grabbing hold of her to prevent what may be the inevitable. It hoists her up, the kids pulling back with as much strength as they can muster. The desperate tug-of-war being a one-sided battle.

Or, at least, that's how it seemed.

The kids tumble back with a collective gasp, their fellow Junior Woodchuck still fine in their hold, as the creature is tackled by a blur of angry red. They watch in awe as the shapeshifter is slammed into the neighboring wall, their troop leader backing up fast away from it following the attack.

Huey takes a protective stance between the kids and the monster, shaking blood from his hair.

"I told you, **don't** touch my kids." He growls so low it's barely audible. And he glances back to the kids in question, "What are you doing?" He points, arm shaking with barely held back rage, "Get to the other side of the room _now_ , please."

The kids nod in a confused hurry and rush to the other side of the room, huddling together.

The creature scoffs as it stands back up, "You just got lucky. I was distracted," The words blooming a seed of doubt in the kids' minds, "You'll die here, fighting for your life."

Everything the shapeshifter was saying was making the kids’ fears worse. After all, they knew Huey wasn't tough, he was harmless and sweet. He wasn't a fighter, he always solved things through different means. They admired that about him, just a little, he always said he wanted to set a good example for them.

On the other side of the room, Huey's face was set in a hateful glare the kids couldn't see. The shapeshifter, however, could see it quite clearly, and it laughs with misplaced amusement. It lunges shortly after.

Huey shifts to the side, it's hand going clear past his head and left shoulder. Huey's right hand shoots out, grabbing tight to the shapeshifter's arm, stopping it in its tracks and it's eyes widen.

"Wha- What do you think that's going to accomplish?!" It asks with a hint of nervousness that it was definitely trying to hide. It hesitates much too long.

"I dunno," Huey says with a sarcastic shrug as his robotic fingers dig deep into its goopy looking skin, "What do you think?"

In one swift motion, as the creature pauses for another second, Huey pivots, latching onto its arm with his other hand. Using its weight against it, he hoists it over his shoulder with a grunt and slams it into the ground with enough force to crack stone.

Huey backs up and then books it over to the kids while the creature lays on its back, trying to catch its breath. Huey speaks before any of them can get a word out, "Okay kids, do any of you have your designated survival knife?"

"Um, I do?" Marley says, raising her hand. She digs it out of her bag, "W-Why?"

"Can I have it, please?" Huey asks, kneeling down to her level. He holds a hand out.

"O-of course," She says with a nod, "Will I get it back?" She adds hesitantly as Huey stands up, survival knife in hand.

"Probably not, sweetie." Huey says gently despite the serious look on his face, his attention directed to the creature as it gives an angry screech, "I'll get you a new one, okay? You won't want this one anymore once this is over."

Marley nods, although Huey doesn't see it. Huey puts as much distance between himself and his kids as he can, the creature pulling itself to all fours. It charges without much warning, screeching angrily the whole way, apparently having decided it was done with talking. It tackles Huey before he has a chance to brace himself and they go tumbling, the kids scrambling out of the way before they get crashed into.

Huey manages to pull his legs up as they go and he kicks the shapeshifter in the chest with an angry grunt. Huey rolls over, scrambles to his feet and runs, pivoting on his heel when he puts enough distance between them. He flicks the knife open and sets his plan in motion.

It pulls itself up faster this time and charges-- not at Huey, but at the kids. Huey's mind pauses with shock, his body stalling in his motions. Everything was not quite working out the way he hoped. He races after it with a rage-filled yell, the knife hitting the floor with a small metallic clatter. And it's the fastest Huey has ever moved, once again he latches onto it's outstretched arm with his right hand, its claws just inches from the kids.

In his fury, Huey squeezes it's arm so tightly it's forearm separates from the rest of its body. The arm splatting on the floor in a goopy dark puddle. It shrieks with pain, maybe something else, and stumbles back. But instead of attempting retreat like Huey expects, it knocks him hard to the ground in the next second, pinning him by one arm. Huey reacts fast, bringing his legs up and pushing both feet into its shoulders before it can make a snap at his throat.

Huey feels a small twinge of panic, he was pinned. _He was pinned_ \-- No. He was being held down but he could get free. He still had one arm to work with. The creature wasn't thinking straight and Huey could use that. Huey fixes it with a glare.

Pushing it up with his feet, he rolls slightly to the right, not taking his eyes off it. His left hand meets cold metal and his fingers curl, giving a slight flick of the wrist. Huey rolls, now free of his right arm, pushing off its face with his foot as it snaps where his head used to be; and in just a fraction of a second Huey was on his feet and sprinting for the abandoned knife on the floor. It charges after him a couple seconds later.

When he reaches the knife, he holds it down by the handle with his foot and coats the fingers of his left hand in blood. He works fast, going over the lettering he had already put there minutes before and finishes the writing in what he hoped was record time. He grabs the knife just as the creature reaches him and he twists around as fast as he can, stabbing with the small blade where he thought it was going to be.

The knife goes deep into its chest and it slides to a stop, as Huey takes a small step back. It stares at the little knife poking half way out of its chest for a long moment and then looks up at Huey.

"You," It starts with a raspy laugh, "You take my arm off, but your next attack is to stab me with this tiny blade?" It laughs louder.

Huey just watches. He places a hand on his hip.

The knife starts to glow. Then, it starts to burn and the shapeshifter goes from laughing to shrieking in pain. It grasps desperately at the knife, it's hand seemingly bouncing off of nothing.

"What did you do?!"

"Glad you finally asked," Huey says with a smug smirk, "Those are sealing runes I put on that knife." He points matter-of-factly to the writing in blood along the blade.

"How did-- What?!" It rasps.

"Thing is, I've encountered one of you guys before, and my Uncle Scrooge used those same runes to seal that one away. So I just did the same thing." Huey shrugs. He pats it on the shoulder before turning away to go get his right arm back.

Huey picks his arm up and reattaches it without much fanfare. The shapeshifter still struggling with the knife behind him.

"Wait, watch out!" Page calls from overhead.

Huey whirls, bringing his arm up on instinct, the shapeshifter's teeth clanging against the metal. It had likely been aiming to take a bite out of his shoulder.

Huey glares at it indignantly, "Will you just _go_ already?!" As it lets go of his arm, Huey grabs ahold of its lower jaw, forcing it’s mouth to remain open. Its eyes widen and it starts to back up rapidly, Huey following, "Oh, no, you're not going anywhere. First, you kidnap one of my kids, then try to trick me by pretending to _be_ one of my kids, and _then_ you attempt to eat one of them, and now you don't know when to stop?! What do you have to say for yourself before I _make_ you leave?"

"I… uh…" It stammers somewhat unintelligibly.

Huey sighs, "You know what? Never mind. You better hope someone finds this knife and lets you out someday." Huey leans in close, voice low, "I find the possibility of that highly unlikely."

With that, Huey grabs the handle of the knife and shoves the blade the rest of the way into its chest, causing a chain reaction. The knife glows bright, and, in a swirl of red, sucks the shapeshifter's body in, until there was nothing left, sealing it away. The knife hits the floor with a hollow clang. Once the creature was gone, the floor rumbles, a thunk heard in the distance. Huey hoped in the back of his mind that it was the cave's entrance unsealing.

Huey sighs heavily, it felt like he was letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding the whole time. He runs a hand through his hair, his gaze moving to where Page was. _Right._ He turns his attention to the rest of the kids, who were staring at him, mouths hanging open.

Huey beams and leans forward just slightly, hands on his hips, “What’s wrong? Did you think I couldn’t handle it?”

The kids blink once. Twice.

“That was awesome! Ya really showed that thing!” Gordon finally shouts, unable to contain himself anymore. He throws his arms up in the air, giving a small jump. The rest of the kids all look at Gordon then break out into excited smiles. They all rush at Huey as soon as he gets close.

“Are you okay?” Eva asks, Huey giving her an affirmative nod. She beams at him.

“I was r-really scared!” Marley says, squeezing one of his hands. Wil agrees from behind her.

Huey holds his hands up, “Hey, we can talk later. Aren’t you forgetting someone?” The kids go quiet, backing up as Huey points to the ceiling, up at Page, who was peering down at them over the edge of the basket.

“Oh, yeah!” The kids chirp.

Huey turns around and looks up at Page, he holds his arms out, “Okay kiddo, just jump down. I’ll catch you.”

Page shakes his head, “Won’t that hurt?”

“Wha--?” Huey wilts in confusion, jaw dropping just a bit. He furrows his eyebrows.

“I think he means your robo-arm,” Darius says, giving Huey’s right arm a sympathetic pat.

“Well,” Huey rubs his beak in thought, “Do you trust the other kids to catch you?”

“No.” Page says simply, to the complaints of the rest of the scouts. Maybe, just maybe, the shapeshifter’s performance as Page was more accurate than Huey originally thought.

Huey thinks this over for a long moment, shifting his weight to one foot, “Do any of you have a length of rope?”

“Yup!” Gordon says, digging some rope out of his backpack at light speed. He, thankfully, doesn’t throw the rope at Huey, instead choosing to hand it to him. He’s thrown things before.

“Thank you,” Huey says, giving Gordon a high-five when the boy holds up an enthusiastic hand. “Now, we need something heavy to tie the rope to, so we can throw it up there.”

Much to Huey’s shock, and probably the rest of the kids’ shock, Lark produces a decently large rock from her pack, “Will this work?” Her arms were shaking from the rock’s weight as she holds it out.

“Um, sure?” Huey takes the rock from her. He’d have to make sure her backpack wasn’t too heavy in the future. He ties the rope around the rock, and tosses it up to the basket with ease, “Just climb down!” He calls up to Page.

A moment later, Page slides down the rope, Huey catching him before he lands and setting him down with the other kids.

Huey claps his hands together, interrupting the kids as they inspect Page, apparently making sure he was the real one, “Let’s get out of here.”

 

The journey out of the cave seemed much shorter than the journey in, the kids talking loudly with each other about what happened. The talking dies down as they make it back to where the entrance of the cave had been and now was once more. Sunlight shining just up ahead and Huey leads the charge.

Huey slides to a stop once he hits fresh air, he takes a deep breath, and grins broadly. His hands clench into fists and he punches the air excitedly, with childlike enthusiasm, “Whoo-hoooooo! We’re alive!” He cheers with a laugh, the kids giving their own excitable cheers.

Once things were starting to settle down and Huey had confirmed that all of the kids were just fine; he stretches, shoulders popping. His left shoulder screaming in pain. He was becoming aware of the dull ache throughout his body. He’d have to take a long nap once he got home.

He lets out a heavy breath and stands up, “Well, kids, let’s head back.”

**Author's Note:**

> I finally wrote something! I'm so happy! Now I just hope I can direct this writing power towards my other fic and get the next chapter of that out soon.


End file.
